As Nigerians anxiously await the result of Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti, preparations for the final collation and announcement of the outcome of the crucial poll reached a fever-pitch at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) on New Iyin Road in Ado-Ekiti.
NAN reports that a giant electronic screen board had already been mounted on a pavilion to display the results of the election held in 2,195 polling units spread across 177 wards in the 16 local government areas of Ekiti.
Some members of staff of the commission were also seen making last minute preparations to ensure that the pavilion was ready for the announcement of the final results.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the venue reports that stern-faced security operatives mounted a check point some metres away from the INEC headquarters.
The combined team of security agents insisted all visitors must disembark and frisked before entering the premises of the collation centre.
NAN learnt that the security beef up followed speculations that some hoodlums might be planning to disrupt activities at the venue of the final collation exercise, prompting the deployment of more security personnel to the INEC headquarters.
Already, INEC had dismissed the purported results of the election posted on the social media, saying the figures did not emerge from the commission.
The Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. AbdulGaniyu Raji, made the clarification in a statement issued on Saturday evening.
“Our attention has been drawn to illegal release of results of the 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State on the social media.
” Consequently, we wish to inform the general public that the Ekiti state governorship election is still ongoing.
“Counting of ballots is still in progress, collation of results is equally going on in some areas.
“All the floating news in the social media in respect of the results of the election should be discountenanced by the public.
“The announcement of the election result would be made by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the appropriate time,” Raji said in the statement.
- NAN
